Grazed but Unbowed: Trump’s Defiant Response to Assassination Attempt

Presidents Lincoln (R), Garfield (R), McKinley (R), JFK (D), Reagan (R), Trump (R). All but one of the ‘assassination presidents’ were Republicans. (Though you could also fairly count anti-communist, anti-deep-state JFK as a conservative.). The dark threat of fascism is constantly descending on America but always seems to land on Republicans.

Before we discuss what it means, let’s begin with what we know for sure about last night.

What Happened

Last evening, President Trump was holding a campaign rally in Bethel Park, PA. Around six o’clock, several bystanders noticed a young man dressed in camo climbing onto a nearby roof. Two different bystanders told media that they yelled at police and Secret Service, who just looked puzzled.

CLIP: Witness tells BBC he saw gunman on roof and yelled at SS.

CLIP: Second witness tells CBS News he saw a guy climb on building and told police (1:11).

Early this morning, the FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Pittsburgh, PA. For now, I would consider that identification to be preliminary. Mr. Crooks —or whoever it was— in full view of bystanders, carrying a rifle, walked between two buildings and climbed up onto the roof of the building closest to the rally venue, army-crawling to the roof’s shallow peak. Here’s the setup:

CLIP: the full video of the assassination attempt on President Trump (2:39).

 
According to many reports, the shooter’s building lay outside the official security perimeter. How the shooter knew where to go is anybody’s guess, and he’s not talking, and never will. There has been wild speculation about whether the Secret Service ‘failed’ to prevent the shooting. We don’t know yet, but it appears certain that Trump’s security detail was understaffed. Fox ran a story last night headlined, “Mayorkas denied ‘repeated requests’ for more Secret Service protection for Trump, GOP lawmaker says.”

Many, many questions remain. But we do not know enough, not yet, to lay blame. President Trump is back online, and he thanked the Secret Service:

 
Think critically, but keep an open mind.

Independent videos making the rounds online appeared to show alert bystanders yelling at the shooter, at police, and at Secret Service, trying to warn somebody. But within several short minutes, five shots were heard, followed quickly by return fire from Secret Service snipers on the roof of the building behind Trump’s platform.

The shooter was instantly killed. Of his five shots, four connected. Two bystanders were injured. One, shot in the head, died. And President Trump was grazed in the ear.

There is extensive video of Trump’s shooting, since lots of media were there covering the rally, which was also being filmed by the campaign.  At 6:12pm, Trump can be seen speaking. He turns his head slightly to the right and then suddenly reacts, clapping a hand to his ear. He looks at the hand, sees blood, and drops.

Secret Service agents begin piling on top of the President. Then they all stand, surrounding the President, but Trump can be clearly seen several times, which resulted in the various photographs. At first he looks shocked and disheveled, but Trump quickly rallies, pumps his fist several times, and mouths “Fight!”

The Secret Service agents around Trump quickly escort him off the stage and into a black SUV. There has been much online criticism of how poorly Trump was screened and how (relatively) slowly he was evacuated from the stage to his vehicle. Shooting to evacuation took about two minutes.

At 8:13pm, Joe Biden spoke for about two minutes and clearly condemned Trump’s shooting in particular and political violence in general. He also said, four times, that he tried to call Trump but couldn’t get through.

As of writing this post, that appears to be the sum of what we know for certain so far. Obviously, hot takes and theories abound on social media.

Reactions

For most of the evening, corporate media ran awful stories with headlines reporting “popping noises” and a “disrupted rally” without mentioning anybody getting shot. There clearly was a coordinated media effort to downplay what happened and to avoid calling it an “assassination attempt.” My favorite was CNN’s take, reporting that Trump “fell” at the rally, as though he’d simply stumbled over a sandbag:

 
The articles were no better than the headlines. For example, CBS dismissively called the shootings “an incident at the rally:”

 
But, after the FBI formally declared it an “assassination attempt” early this morning, corporate media headlines and articles began describing the shootings more accurately. Still, most headlines downplayed ‘the incident’s’ severity, emphasizing that Trump was only grazed. For example, NPR:

 
Bloomberg:

 
On the other hand, conservatives expressed outrage and suspicion. Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.):

 
Warblogger Brian Berletic (a personal favorite) posted an extended takedown of many security failures, which admittedly are most obvious in hindsight:

 
Countless conservatives focused on liberals’ deplorable record of calling for political violence:

 
͏͏͏CLIP: montage of liberals calling for violence against Trump (2:20).

Liberals, for their part, were busily posting and then deleting their various violent thoughts, and complaining when people pointed them out. For instance, Representative Steven Woodrow (D-Co.)’s now deleted tweet:

 
Or this now-deleted tweet from BBC reporter David Aaronovitch:

 
Many liberals were disappointed that President Trump survived. For one of many revolting examples, behold Dr. Karen Pinder, medical professor, Cape Town University (account now deleted):

What’s Next

First, note that Trump’s assassination attempt followed a few months after pro-Trump Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s May 15th shooting. Politico, July 9th:

 
And six days ago, the Japanese commemorated the successful assassination of pro-Trump Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Headline from last week, Universal Press International:

 
A pattern seems to be developing, if you are willing to see it. I cannot find a single example from recent history of globalist leaders being shot or assassinated. Maybe it’s time for people to confront the obvious facts. We’ll further develop this theme soon.

The discussion of how the shooting affects presidential politics began within minutes. Axios ran a story this morning headlined, “Biden campaign faces delicate moment after shocking attack on Trump.” It reported that Biden’s campaign has understandably pulled down its campaign ads, since they universally described Trump as a Hitlerian dictator who must be stopped at all costs.

At minimum, it appears the Biden Campaign must develop a new slogan. Axios:

 
But Axios, ever optimistic, also reported that Team Biden views Trump’s shooting as a great opportunity for Biden to “reinvigorate” his campaign. Never let a good crisis go to waste, or something:

 
At least two lifelong democrat billionaires, already leaning Republican, were moved by the emotions of last night’s events to formally endorse Trump for President. Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Capital:

 
And Elon Musk, who has been working himself up to it, but had not yet formally endorsed the President:

 
Emerging from the cacophony of comments was this tweet, which perhaps best summarizes the political moment:

 
It’s very early. We must wait and see how things play out. But no matter what else last night’s shooting was —and it was many things— Trump’s muscular reaction was a defining moment, a new high water mark for the populist President, creating the clearest contrast between himself and enfeebled Joe Biden.